Supreme Court to Review Nationwide Electoral Roll Revision Pleas

New Delhi, Nov 7 (PTI) The Supreme Court has decided to hear on November 11 the pleas challenging the Election Commission's decision to carry out a nationwide Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi announced that it will begin hearing these pleas from November 11 onward. This follows a submission by advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the NGO Association of Democratic Reforms, who argued that the matter is crucial for democracy.

The bench acknowledged that other significant cases are scheduled for hearing from November 11 but assured that it would try to accommodate the SIR-related issues. Bhushan emphasized the urgency of the matter, noting that the SIR exercise has already commenced in different states.

In a related issue, the Supreme Court is already examining challenges to the validity of the Election Commission's decision to conduct the SIR exercise in Bihar. On October 16, the Election Commission defended the Bihar SIR as "accurate" and criticized petitioner political parties and NGOs for allegedly spreading "false allegations" to undermine the exercise. The commission stated that no voter has filed an appeal against the deletion of names since the final electoral roll was published.

The commission also refuted claims by the petitioners that there was a "disproportionate exclusion of Muslims" from the final electoral roll of Bihar, prepared after a comprehensive SIR exercise. According to the Election Commission, the total number of electors in Bihar has decreased by nearly 47 lakh to 7.42 crore after the SIR, down from 7.89 crore prior to the exercise.

The final electoral figure has increased by 17.87 lakh from the 7.24 crore electors listed in the draft released on August 1. The draft list had initially removed 65 lakh voters for reasons such as death, migration, and duplicate entries. A total of 21.53 lakh new voters were added to the draft, while 3.66 lakh names were removed, resulting in a net increase of 17.87 lakh.

Meanwhile, the first phase of elections in Bihar, covering 121 of the 243 assembly seats, concluded on Thursday. The remaining 122 constituencies are set to vote on November 11, with the counting of votes scheduled for November 14.

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